Can Lost Memory Be Recovered?
Memory capacity usually decreases with age. However, this process is not always irreversible. Some of the new techniques, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, appear to restore lost memory, which in some cases is associated with aging. In fact, this study, published by Robert MG Reinhart and John A. Nguyen, has shown that transcranial magnetic stimulation can cause the memory of the elderly to return to a level similar to that of a young person. Next, we’ll explore the topic in a little more detail.
Memory decreases with age
Many people complain that from a certain age their memory is impaired, especially when memorizing names, dates, or other everyday aspects.
One of the most common symptoms is loss of daily working memory, or RAM. Memory like this is used, for example, to remember a phone number for a few seconds, to make calculations, to make decisions “on the fly,” and to manage ordinary everyday situations. In short, working memory is the memory that allows us to temporarily store and process information.
Over the years, this capacity begins to decline, which can prove detrimental to maintaining daily efficiency and normal operation.
Neurons lose their consensus
How can we lose this memory capacity without suffering from some degenerative disease? The issue is still unresolved.
One recently published finding has found that the synchronism of stimulated neurons is important for memory maintenance.
Neurons are cells that respond to stimuli and transmit them to other neurons. But when neurons do it in a asynchronous way, we could compare their performance in this case to an asynchronous orchestra. The result would be a cacophony, this is knowledge. Therefore, it is for this reason that when neurons lose their agreement, memory also begins to decline.
Memory recovery in just 25 minutes
In a study published in the journal Nature, transcranial magnetic stimulation was used to stimulate nerve cells and thus in an effort to restore lost memory. The study involved volunteers aged 60–70 years as well as those under 30 years of age.
Participants were stimulated in different areas of the brain associated with memory activity for 25 min. The results showed that after as little as 25 minutes, a recovery of inter-neuronal synchronization was observed in these different parts of the brain in the subjects.
Quite surprisingly, after stimulation, older subjects were able to detect a return to mental agility to a level comparable to younger subjects. However, this incredible recovery ended 50 minutes later, after which the memory capacity of the elderly returned to its original level.
Hopeful therapy
Although the study ultimately achieved nothing but temporary recovery of memory, the researchers note that this experiment shows that memory loss is not an irreversible phenomenon.
In fact, transcranial magnetic stimulation could also serve as a promising therapy to ameliorate the symptoms of cognitive impairment in people with Alzheimer’s without drugs.
In addition to restoring memory
In addition to stimulating neurons and improving memory, this therapy can also be applied to other health-related problems.
For example, transcranial magnetic stimulation can be used to correct dysphagia (a disorder of swallowing) as a result of an injury. In this case, the area of the cerebellum is stimulated to stimulate the esophageal muscle, which also improves the capacity of the series of movements associated with swallowing.
And surely the number of applications of this therapy will only increase at the same time as its technology is developed and supplemented. It is also possible that in the near future we will see so-called “portable” stimulators that can be directed to the patient’s personal use according to his or her own needs.
